Bob Gohl holds one of the many duck decoys he has in his Astoria home.

Bob Gohl has quite the footprint in Clatsop County after decades as a barber, referee, coach, fisherman, hunter and regular at high school sporting events.

Gohl’s family has roots on the North Coast that date back to the mid-1800s. He was born in Hammond in 1938 and remembers his dad being stationed at Fort Stevens during World War II.

“My mom ran the PX at Fort Stevens during the war and my dad was a soldier at Fort Stevens,” he said. “He operated the big guns at Battery Russell.”

After his father came out of the military, he became a barber. Gohl cut hair with his dad before going to barber school in Portland and working at multiple barbershops in Warrenton and Astoria.

A people person — as Chris, his wife of more than three decades, describes him — being a barber was right up his alley. He said cutting hair allowed him to find out what was going on in the community.

“I knew who was getting married, who was getting divorced, who went to jail, who was getting in trouble,” Gohl said. “Word of mouth in Astoria is everything and being a barber allowed me to pretty much know everything that was going on.”

Along with cutting hair, Gohl spent time as a referee and youth sports coach. He coached Little League baseball, as well as women’s softball and travel basketball. He also served as groundskeeper for the baseball fields during his time as a coach.

“When I was 20 years old I started doing refereeing for local basketball,” Gohl said. “I did that off and on for 40 years.”

Though he spent most of his time at the barbershop, refereeing and coaching, Gohl loved to go fishing and duck hunting.

He enjoyed the lakes, rivers and streams across the region and would take trips to Alaska in his fishing boat during the summer.

The downstairs of Gohl’s Commercial Street home includes hundreds of duck decoys. He made some of the decoys himself, but also bought some from local businesses and friends as souvenirs.

“It was a hobby,” he said. “I already had quite a few, but if I saw some that I liked I would just collect them. It was relaxing for me to do it.”

Gohl now spends much of his time at high school sporting events. For football and baseball seasons, he will sometimes watch games from his truck in the parking lot. But during basketball season, he will usually be seated at midcourt a few rows back to take stats.

“I go to Naselle, Warrenton, Ilwaco, wherever there’s a game,” he said. “Parents, grandparents and kids like the stats and I enjoy taking them. I like watching kids develop as there’s been some really good players out of this area.”